The scope of the present invention is a temperature control system applied in heating and cooling phases of thermal processing.
In the known thermal devices a system of infinitely variable adjustment of the power of resistance heating elements is based on a three-phase silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) or a variable reactance transformer (VRT). An SCR connected to the electrical supply, controls the power following a control input from a programmable temperature controller, through alteration of the effective output voltage as a result of switching on and off full cycles of sinusoidal supply voltage (proportional-time control or group control, where mean output voltage U is proportional to supply voltage Un and switch-on time Tz and inversely proportional to period T; U=Un×Tz/T), or through partial clipping of the sinusoidal supply voltage (phase control).
A variable reactance transformer (VRT) adjusts the power following a control input from the control system, through alteration of the effective output current resulting from the impact upon the VRT control circuit current.
In standard thermal equipment the cooling process is not controlled and the operation of the cooling gas blower motor (3-phases, induction motor) forcing gas circulation through the workload is not adjustable. The motor works to standard working parameters dependent on the load and is connected directly to electrical supply. In the case of motors whose power exceeds a few dozen kW, soft-start systems are used in order to reduce the starting current (and only that). Some designs provide for a two-speed motor featuring a 2:1 ratio of rated rotations of high and low speeds and, consequently, a 4:1 ratio of rated power, which enables motor operation at two rotational speeds and powers as well as diversification of cooling rate: slow cooling at low speed and rapid cooling at high speed.
The latest designs call for full control of the workload cooling process (workload temperature) following an input signal from the temperature controller through adjustment of the cooling blower motor rotational speed within 0–100% (or even more) of rated speed. This is made possible by inverters known as frequency converter which adjust the rotational speed of a 3-phases induction motor by modulating the effective voltage and its frequency or phase. Performance characteristic of a blower motor prevents independent control of rotational speed, power and torque of the motor since a change to any of these parameters entails automatic change of the remaining ones and, effectively, control of rotational speed of an induction motor results in a change of its power or torque. In such a case the motor is wired to the frequency converter's output through a contactor. The frequency converter is supplied from a three-phase supply mains and transforms this energy into three-phase supply of the motor of proper voltage-frequency characteristic, thus enforcing the requested rotational speed and output power or torque.